Rosetta Stone Launches A Digital Learning App For Preschoolers

Rosetta Stone ’s first foray into the consumer kids learning app market includes “activities that promote English phonetic awareness, pronunciation of letter sounds, and a grasp of everyday Spanish phrases.” The free iOS app called “Lingo Letter Sounds” uses cute animated “GoGo Lingos” and engaging touch screen mechanics to immerse kids in early literacy and language skills.

If you’ve ever fooled around with a Rosetta Stone product, you know that “immersion” is Rosetta code for “fun drilling and practicing.” Lingo Letter Sounds features “immersion” geared at 3-6 year old children. From Rosetta Stone’s perspective, successful learning outcomes are dependent on how “sticky” the apps are. As West Stringfellow, Rosetta Stone’s CPO explained to me, “time on task is the best indication of language learning success.”

Mr. Stringfellow also explained that this app is the beginning of a “new permutation” of Rosetta Stone products that hope to redefine the “the intersection of entertainment and education.” He assured me that the release of Lingo Letter Sounds is just the first step in “a suite of content that caters to any learning ability and any learning style.”

Rosetta Stone acquired Lexia Learning earlier this summer for $22.5 million with the intention of transitioning from a language company to a learning company. Lingo Letter Sounds is the beginning of the transition. By mixing Lexia Learning’s expertise in the area children’s reading technology with Rosetta Stone’s expertise in language instruction and speech recognition the company should be able to develop some pretty distinct learning products.

Mr. Stringfellow explained to me that the Rosetta Stone speech recognition engine has been “adapted to kids’ speech patterns.” Apparently, because of a number of physical differences, including a smaller palate, kids have distinct speech idiosyncrasies that confuse a computer. Rosetta Stone has been training the computer, using kids voices, for a while now. All in preparation for the upcoming suite of apps.

Lingo Letter Sounds only makes slight use of Rosetta Stone’s excellent speech recognition. They use it for teaching basic Spanish phrases. And whatever they did to make it kid-friendly worked. My 6 year old son had a much higher success rate with his scratchy and squeaky yelling than I do with my adult voice.

My son and I have been playing with Lingo Letter Sounds for the last few days. The app is polished. The animations are engaging. And the reward and reinforcement system is good--kids win virtual “toys” when they solve each puzzle and the GoGo Lingo characters respond to your kids' Spanish pronunciation.

The reading part of the app is essentially an engaging way for kids to practice phonics based letter recognition. And it does it well. Don’t expect Lingo Letter Sounds to be a comprehensive literacy curriculum. You can’t just throw a tablet in your kids hands and expect them to master phonics. As always, you should play with your kids.

What separates Lingo Letter Sounds from other literacy apps is the inclusion of Spanish. The Rosetta Stone website claims that “research shows that early exposure to foreign language sounds simultaneously strengthens children's reading skills in their first language while jump-starting their ability to learn a new one.”

My son enjoyed talking in Spanish to the GoGo Lingo characters and while I’m not sure he played enough to remember any of the words, his pronunciation certainly improved. Likely, this is because the app is adaptive. It increases the amount of Spanish words it introduces based on the quality of pronunciation.

I should also mention that, like most learning apps, there is a parents section in Lingo Letter Sounds that allows parents to track their kids progress, or adapt the settings to increase the difficulty.

I’m excited to see the apps Rosetta Stone builds as they flesh out this franchise of direct to consumer apps for kids.  And I’m excited to discover if my kids learn spanish as we review each of the games.

Jordan Shapiro is author of  FREEPLAY: A Video Game Guide to Maximum Euphoric Bliss and co-editor of Occupy Psyche: Jungian and Archetypal Perspectives on a Movement. For information on his upcoming books and events click here.